Basil

Every few months, I will buy a package of fresh basil. I love fresh basil. But, honestly, who can eat more than a few leaves at a time? To make sure none of the fresh herb goes to waste, I will take a moment to process that basil to prepare it for future marinara use.

After stripping and rinsing all the leaves, it is a simple task to drop them in the food processor with a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil.

First, measure the basil. Then calculate (yes, using math) the amount of oil and garlic you need.

In this instance, I had 2 cups of fresh basil. My favorite marinara recipe uses about 1/4 cup of olive oil and 6 garlic cloves per cup of basil. So, I added .5 cups olive oil and 12 garlic cloves for 2 cups of basil.

Everything into the food processor. Process until the garlic and basil are chopped, of course.

Done.

If you are going to use my favorite marinara recipe adapted from Mom on a Mission, divide based on the number of cups of basil. In this case, there were 2 cups of basil in my processor, so I divided it into 2 equal portions.

One half went to make marinara right away. The other went into the FREEZER.

When you add garlic to olive oil, you MUST freeze, cook, or eat immediately. DO NOT just stick it in your refrigerator for later use.

Garlic + Olive Oil + Basil + Freezer= Yum.

Garlic + Olive Oil + Basil + Time in the fridge = Botulism Poisoning!

Seriously. Freeze, Eat, or Cook.

If you freeze, then the next time you want to make some marinara, you have half of the ingredients all ready to go!